


Family Ties

by cipherszodiac



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-16
Updated: 2016-03-17
Packaged: 2018-05-27 01:14:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6263692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cipherszodiac/pseuds/cipherszodiac
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Pines family seems to be more connected than they thought, not family wise, but through relationships with a demon.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

It was a cool summers day, August was just fading into September, and Dipper laid in his room in the Mystery Shack. This was the first summer where he wasn't going to leave Gravity Falls to go back to school. He  had decided to take up great uncle Ford on his offer to train him as an apprentice. He figured he could finally chase his dream without leaving Mabel, because she was taking off to business school anyways.

Dipper, who got up from his bed too look out at the scenery outside, walked over to the windowsill to stretch. The wind was blowing the leaves around ever so slightly, and the branches rustled about. After taking in the beauty of the scene laid out before his eyes, Dipper sauntered over to a bean bag chair in the corner of the room and flopped down on it with enough force that he could see dust particles arise from the old thing. He reclined back with a sigh, thinking about what the near future had in store for him. He felt someone lightly place them self beside him, and he didn't need to look over to know who it was

"What're ya thinking about pine tree?" asked Bill questioningly.

Dipper huffed out a little laugh "You probably already know, don't you?"

"Kid, I don't intrude on your thoughts ALL THE TIME." Bill paused for a moment. "But I actually TOTALLY DO."

Dipper let out a half hearted laugh, not feeling the energy to respond to Bill, he was feeling tired that day. Dipper leaned his head on Bill's shoulder, causing Bill to wrap one hand around Dipper's waist only a moment after. They laid back and relaxed, just enjoying each others company in the moment.

 

It had been quite a while that Dipper was asleep on Bill, and he only woke up due to the sound of someone coming upstairs. Still in a hazy state of just coming out of sleep, Dipper didn't think twice of it. He laid back on Bill, who also seemed to be lost in his own mind. It was just a moment later that Dipper heard someone lightly knock on his door. Ford's voice followed.

"Dipper? Can I come in for a moment?" His voice softly questioned from the other side of the door.

"Yea!" He said a little louder so his great uncle could hear him.

It was not until it was too late that Dipper realized what he just did. There he was with Bill, and great uncle Ford was about to walk in and see them together. Dipper scrambled to his feet, trying to get to the door before it was too late.

"What's wrong pine tree?" Bill's familiar, echoey voice chimed behind him.

"No, wait!" Dipper yelled, ignoring Bill's question, trying to address Ford before he came in.

It was too late. Ford had opened the door and peered around the corner, only to lock eyes with Bill. His expression dropped to a blank stare, then to a face that was mixed with surprise, disgust, and annoyance. Dipper froze, not knowing how to react.

"Great uncle Ford, I can explain- It's not what you think-" Dipper frantically tried to say, his face slowly turning red.

He was cut off by Bill, who bumped into him as he pridefully strode by. Bill walked right up to Ford, hand outstretched as if he was asking for a handshake.

"Ol' Sixer! How's it been?" Bill casually asked Ford with a big smile on his face, as if they were good friends who hadn't seen each other in a while.

The tension in the room was thick enough to cut with a knife. Dipper stood in the corner, his face redder then any of the leaves outside. The only sound was the sound of the leaves being blown about by the wind outside.

To Dipper, it felt like years until Ford responded. He stood there staring Bill down. His arms were pasted to his sides, his hands clenched into tight fists. When he did speak, he said one, simple word quiet enough that if you weren't paying attention, you wouldn't have heard.

_"Fuck."_


	2. The Start of Something New

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dipper prepares Ford for the story of his history with the dream demon.

It was quite a while before anyone spoke. Dipper tried to force some sort of explanation out of his throat, but nothing would come out. The tension in the room felt like it would snap at any moment, but it didn't seem like anyone was going to break it. Finally, after what felt like eons, Ford spoke first.

"How long has he been back?" Ford asked, his tone clearly telling that he was trying to hold back his anger and not have an outburst.

"He came back a couple months after Weirdmageddon." Dipper said quietly, avoiding eye contact with his great uncle, hoping he would't hear.

"WHAT?"

That broke him. Ford's face was red with fury. His balled fists became even tighter, his skin turning white from clenching it so hard. Although Ford was barley taller than Dipper, the man's stature mixed with his anger intimidated Dipper, and even Bill. Dipper was genuinely terrified that Ford was going to hurt him, or worse, Bill.

"Fordsy, Fordsy, calm down. Let's talk about this." Bill cut in, putting his hands up a bit and taking a step back as a sign of backing off.

"Calm down? CALM DOWN? HOW THE _HELL_ AM I SUPPOSED TO CALM DOWN WHEN MY GREAT NEPHEW HAS KEPT A SECRET THIS LARGE FROM ME FOR FIVE YEARS?" Ford yelled, clearly exasperated from what he had just been presented with.

Dipper flinched and even cowered a bit at the sound of his great uncle's booming voice. His voice seemed to shake the very formation of the shack. He had never seen Ford this mad, ever. Not even when Mabel accidentally took his precious stash of fairy dust mistaking it for glitter.

After his outburst, Ford took a deep breath, and closed his eyes. He looked up a moment later and began to speak again, this time with a much calmer tone to his voice.

"Dipper."

He looked up at Ford, not able to muster up a response in fear of another explosion of Ford's anger.

"I- I'm sorry for that. I really am," Ford said, clearly seeing the fear on Dipper's face. "Can we just talk about... _this_?" Ford said while gesturing to Bill.

"Where should I start?" Dipper asked.

"When he came back."

"Okay, this is going to take a while, so lets sit."

Ford, Dipper, and Bill walked over to the side of the room with the beds, Ford obviously steering clear of Bill. Ford sat on what used to be Mabel's bed, while Dipper and Bill sat on Dipper's bed.

Ford looked intently at Dipper, who was thinking of where he was going to start. Bill looked at Dipper after a moment of silence and asked a quick "Pine tree, you there?"

Ford let out a grunt, followed by "He still calls you that?"

"Yea, nicknames seem to be a favorite of his."

"I can see." Ford replied, thinking of when Bill addressed him as 'Fordsy" and "Sixer" earlier. He hadn't had someone call him those names in years.

There was another brief moment of silence before Dipper spoke again.

"I guess it started when he came back a few months after Weirdmageddon happened..."


	3. Back in Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dipper reveals the story of Bill's reoccurrence into their dimension.

It was the fall after Dipper and Mabel's first summer in Gravity Falls and despite the scarring and terrible events of the last couple days of their summer, Dipper still missed it immensely. He missed running around care free each day and solving mysteries with his friends and family. It went by too quick for him. He felt like he had only _just_ met Ford, and still had so many questions. He felt like they didn't even have time to fully recover after the happenings of Weirdmageddon. He just missed Gravity Falls a lot. He regretted not taking up Ford's offer on an apprenticeship. Maybe another summer he would stay.

He laid bored on his bed, just getting home from school on a Friday. He was listening to Mabel in the next room over talking to her Gravity Falls friends over Skype. He recognized the booming, deep voice of Grenda, Candy's higher pitched, smaller voice. And another voice, he couldn't quite place for a moment. He couldn't tell who it was until Grenda stopped talking for a moment. It suddenly clicked with him.  _Wendy._ Man, he missed her. Like, a lot.

"Oh geez, kid, your still not hung up over  _her,_ are you?" A scarily familiar voice asked Dipper.

Dipper froze in his bed, muscles tensing up and his eyes widening. It could be a hundred years since he last heard that voice and he would still recognize it immediately. Dipper sat up slowly and scanned his room. 

"Bill?"

"Over here pine tree!" Shot a voice behind Dipper.

Dipper quickly turned around, expecting to see the floating dream demon behind him, but he was met with something he was not expecting. He turned around to see a long, slender figure reclining at Dipper's desk, feet up on the table. the figure turned it's head to reveal a man's face, no older than 20. He had yellow hair, not quite neon, but bright enough to be a bit of a shock. There were blackish-brown undertones to break up the color. He was fair skinned with golden honey colored eyes. He stood up to reveal a white button down shirt adorned with a yellow vest to match his hair and a black bowtie. he finished off his look with sleek, body hugging slacks and black dress shoes. 

Dipper froze, not quite knowing how to react. He thought they killed Bill, finished him off, but apparently they were wrong. And it caught Dipper wildly of guard to see him like this, not like the floating triangle he had come to recognize. Suddenly, a smile spread across his face, and Dipper recoiled a bit in fear of what he was going to do or say.

"I forgot you guys never saw this." Bill said slyly while motioning to his body.

Dipper was still in shock about this whole thing.

"How did you? I thought you got killed. Didn't the memory gun kill you?" Dipper asked with caution.

"Wellllllllll," Bill said, "I thought I was gone for too kid, but alas, I got erased from your dimension, and got sent far, far away from your dimension. I thought I was never going to be able to come back, I thought I was done for. But I am Bill Cipher, so a couple of deals here, and couple a favors there, and I'm back here with you guys! But in a different body! Neat huh!" Bill said, nudging Dipper with his elbow. He had slowly made his way over to Dipper, besides Dipper clearly recoiling from him with every step he took closer.

"Hey, at least you don't need to worry about me possessing you any more!" Bill said with a laugh. Dipper shivered at the memory of what happened that day at Mabel's puppet show.

Dipper, still dismayed at Bill's impromptu arrival, took a while to speak.

"Man, great uncle Ford is going to FLIP when I tell him you came back." Dipper said.

Bills eye's got real wide all of the sudden, and his face dropped.

"No, no, no, no, no, pine tree. How about not mentioning this to old Fordsy?" Bill said, his face clearly showing his concern.

Dipper looked at Bill for a minute, realizing something that he hadn't before. Bill had a human face, and was capable of showing emotions, unlike when he was literally just a floating triangle with an eye. This made Dipper realize that Bill actually had feelings, and maybe wasn't the heartless dream demon he had come to know.

"Alright, I won't tell Ford, but you have to make a deal with me." Dipper said.

"Fine kid, anything." Bill said quickly.

"You may be back here, but absolutely NO shit like you pulled with my family over the summer. You can't torture us, possess us, reverse our orifice functions, you get the idea." Dipper said.

Bill looked surprised at Dipper's requirements, but smiled a moment after.

"It's a deal pine tree." Bill said, outstretching his hand for a hand shake, which became engulfed in the signature blue flame.

Dipper shook his hand, "Deal."

 

Over the years, Dipper's relationship with Bill grew immensely. They became close because Bill claimed "There was nothing else cool to do on this stupid planet," so he hung out with Dipper. They spent the rest of Dipper's high school career getting involved in Bill's demon affairs, solving the occasional mystery, and other things of the type. The two became inseparable. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the first time I've written a story in years, and the first time I've tried to imitate the style of someone else's characters, so it is bad, I apologize in advance.


	4. One on One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dipper finishes his tale, leaving Ford and Bill to have some one on one time.

It was quite late by the time Dipper had finished telling the tale of Bill's reappearance. Dipper had watched the arise of emotions on Ford's face as he went on. There was anger, surprise, fear, and sullenness. The best reaction they got out of Ford in Dipper's opinion is when Bill gently rested his head on Dipper's shoulder, causing Ford to contort his face into surprise, disgust, and what Dipper thought looked like jealousy, but he couldn't quite tell.

Dipper had finished his story, only to be followed by science. Bill had fallen asleep on his shoulder, and Ford was just looking at Dipper.

"I understand, you know." Ford finally said.

"What do you mean?' Dipper asked questioningly, not knowing what Ford was understanding.

"Why you couldn't tell me. Breaking a deal with him would be like letting all the demons out of hell four times over." Ford said with a laugh. He was finally making light of the situation, making Dipper feel better about himself.

"You made out pretty well with that deal. I couldn't have asked for anything better myself." Ford said as he stood up from Mabel's old bed. 

Ford got up with a grunt, putting his hands on his thighs to help himself get up. He put his hands in the air and latched his hands together while arching his back to stretch.

"Jesus, we've been up here for a while." Ford said. "I'm going to bed Dipper."

"Okay, I'll see you tomorrow?" Dipper said. 

"Of course, but one more thing," Ford said, "He is _not_ staying here tonight." Jerking his thumb to Bill, who was still asleep on Dipper.

Dipper sighed, Ford was still mad. He thought he may have let that pass. He shook Bill a little to get him awake.

"Sorry Bill, your getting kicked out."

"What?" Bill said sleepily, rubbing his eyes. He looked over to see Ford waiting. "OH, okay.'

Bill stood up and waked over to Ford, who had starting walking towards the door. Before heading out of the room, Bill turned to Dipper.

"Night pine tree." Bill said with a smile and a wink.

Dipper felt his cheeks go red, but before he could say anything, Bill was out the door.

 

Bill followed after Ford, who was already down the stairs by the time he closed the door. He followed Ford to the foyer, and passed the living room on the way out. Bill peaked his head in out of curiosity, only to see Stanley Pines asleep on his recliner, mouth agape and snoring. His hat was tilted, slowly falling off his head. The TV was still on playing whatever he had fallen asleep too. Bill went up to Ford, who was waiting for him by the front door.

"I thought that old geyser was supposed to be dead by now?" Bill said, jerking his thumb in the direction of the living room. "Wait," Bill said with a pause, "Thinking of another dimension's fate for him, never mind."

Ford looked a bit scared at first, then annoyed. He opened the door and gestured for Bill to walk out of the house.

"Don't bother my family again." Ford growled at Bill.

"Yeesh Sixer, calm down, don't have a heart attack just yet, your not 92." That caused Ford to make a face of curiosity. "You heard the deal I made with pine tree right? He didn't break it, so I won't break my part." Bill said defensively.

"Just get out of my house." Ford snapped.

"Fine. fine." Bill said strolling out onto the front porch. He turned on his heel to look Ford in the face.

"See ya later Fordsy." Bill said with a smirk and a wink. He snapped his finger and he was gone in a flash of blue flames.

Ford sighed and turned back inside. He made his way to the vending machine door that lead to the basement. Ford typed in the code that opened the door, and the machine flew open. Ford made his way downstairs to find the one thing that could stop Bill, unicorn hair.

 

Ford spent the whole night slowly and painstakingly glued a line of unicorn hair around the perimeter of the Mystery Shack, knowing this would solve his most recent problem.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the short chapter, the next one will hopefully be longer.


	5. Ford's Stories

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dipper gets to talk to Ford without the nuisance that is Bill.

Dipper's eyes fluttered open as he woke up for the first time that day. The sun filtered through the window, lighting up the air and revealing millions of tiny dust mites floating around in the room. Dipper sat up in bed, stretching out his arms in front of him. He wondered why Bill wasn't with him, but then he recalled the previous night's happenings. Dipper got up and made his way downstairs and into the kitchen to look for some breakfast. He went to the pantry first, because he saw that no one had made breakfast, and if they did, they didn't leave any behind. He took out a box of cereal and made himself a bowl. He sat down at the kitchen table, a creek arising from the old chair he chose. He could hear Grunkle Stan in the other room leading people through the Mystery Shack. He could hear the occasional "oh"s and "ah"s from the crowd following the introduction of a new attraction. Dipper finished his cereal, making his way upstairs to get dressed. After he threw on the usual orange shirt and shorts. He made his way downstairs and went on the hunt to find great uncle Ford. On his search, he ran across Soos fixing something under the counter in the entry room to the Mystery Shack.

"Hey Soos!" Dipper called.

Soos shot up, hitting his head on the counter as he did so. "Hey dude!" He said while rubbing the part of his head that hit the counter.

Dipper made his way over to Soos. 

"Have you seen great uncle Ford?" Dipper asked.

"I saw him go in the basement around an hour ago." Soos replied.

"Thanks!" Dipper said as he made his way over to the vending machine door.

He made sure no tourists were around before punching in the code and slipping downstairs. He saw a light coming from downstairs, confirming his suspicions that someone was down there. He reached the basement, but didn't see anyone. 

"Great uncle Ford?" Dipper yelled, hoping for a response.

"Over here!" Echoed Ford's voice from around a corner.

Dipper followed the voice, finding Ford putting a jar back on some shelf. Ford turned around and smiled at Dipper.

"Morning!" Ford said.

"Hey great uncle Ford." Dipper said. "Are you okay?" Dipper asked. Ford looked immensely tired exhausted. "You look like you didn't sleep."

Ford smiled. "Yea, I stayed up for a while after we left your room last night," Ford said while scratching the back of his neck nervously. "But don't worry, I'm fine."

"Okay, if you say so." Dipper said.

Dipper and Ford went on to do some experiments with some odd creature they had found out in the woods a couple of days prior. While writing down information, Dipper thought he remembered something about this particular creature that he had seen before. 

"I swear I could have read something about this before. Oh! It was probably in one of the journals. Let em go get-" Dipper cut himself off, remembering that the journals were no longer in existence.

"Sorry, I forgot for a minute." Dipper said to Ford, who was now looking at him.

"It's really quite funny isn't it?" Ford asked Dipper with a laugh.

"What is?" Dipper asked, not sure what Ford was talking about.

"The very being that helped bring those journals into existence was the same one that destroyed them."

Dipper paused. "I never thought of it that way. Did Bill really help you that much."

"Immensely." Ford said. "I wouldn't have known about at least half the stuff in those books if it wasn't for him."

"Wow, I didn't know that."

"But, after a while, he was't talking my work seriously, so I tried to kick him out more times than I could count. The only time I really ever got away from him was when I got sucked into that portal." Ford said with a chuckle, as if it was funny to get sucked into an unknown dimension of terror.

"What do you mean he wasn't taking you seriously?" Dipper asked.

Ford chuckled a bit, but eventually led on into a laugh. "Oh Dipper, the shit that I had to put up with when Bill was around was hilariously annoying in every way possible."

"What'd he do?" Dipper asked, now wanting to know what was so funny about what Bill did.

"Well let me tell you."

 

 

Ford was in his basement, slaving away at a journal entry about a species that he had come across earlier that called themselves "Manotaurs." He was careful jotting down measurements he had taken of their horns, completely engulfed in his work. He was hunched over the table he was working on, when suddenly his ears picked up a subtle sound coming from outside the lab. He recognized it as a song, and immediately knew what was happening. Considering this was going to be the tenth time this week that this was happening, Ford fully knew what to expect. As the song grew closer, he recognized it as a song called "Hot in Here" that Bill had always played, but he had never heard it anywhere else on the radio. He had figured that it was from another dimension or the future. Soon, Ford heard the noise of the lab door being kicked open, followed by the familiar lines "its getting hot in here, so take off all your clothes." Ford didn't even need to look up to know that Bill was standing over him, shirtless, with radio floating close behind him.

"Jesus FUCK Bill I have work to do." Ford said gritting his teeth.

"Oh come one Fordsy, don't be a BUZZKILL!" Bill said.

"Don't you think this would get old after the first NINE TIMES?" Ford said, now looking at Bill.

"Nope!" Bill said, smiling wildly.

"Fucking christ! Jest leave! Please!" Ford said, exasperated.

"Fine fine," Bill said, raising his hands in defense, "But don't think I won't be back later!" Bill said. With a quick snap of his fingers, he was gone. Ford could finally focus again, and got back to work with a sigh.

 

 

"Oh man, he's such as pompous ass, isn't he?" Dipper said while laughing at the story his great uncle just told. 

"Yea, yea, he really is." Ford said, also laughing at the recollection of an old memory. "Thats not all he did."

 

 

Ford was bending over, shuffling through a draw in an attempt to look for an old chart that he drew up a couple of weeks ago for tracking gnome migration. After ruffling around the papers for a few minutes, he suddenly felt someone else's presence in the room. Knowing it could only be one person, he didn't bother turning around. A few moments passed as Ford was looking for the chart again. He thought maybe that Bill left, was so wrong. Ford yelped in shock as Bill firmly slapped his ass with no warning.

'BILL!" Ford yelled, standing up and turning on his heel. "What the FUCK was that for?" 

"How else was I supposed to get your attention Poindexter?" Bill said with a smile spreading across his face.

"There are literally HUNDREDS of other ways-" Ford cut himself off. "Never mind." He said while pinching the bridge of his nose.

"What're you doing down here anyway?" Bill asked.

"Looking for something I wrote down a couple of weeks ago." Ford said, returning to his search. 

"Would it happen to be this?" Bill said while snapping his fingers. Suddenly a piece of paper appeared in his hand. Ford turned around to see Bill holding the gnome migration chart in his hand. He closed the drawer with his foot and walked over to Bill. He took the paper and mumbled a "thanks" as he walked away, looking at the chart. 

Bill smirked and followed with "Welcome Sixer!"

 

 

Dipper was dubbed over in laughter, face red and cheeks sore from laughing. Ford was the same way, laughing over these memories he hadn't brought up in years.

"Bill was a pain in the ass," Dipper said. "No pun intended."

That only made the two laugh even harder, taking a moment for them to both catch their breath.

"Yea, he really was." Ford said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was really fun to write, especially the flashbacks with Ford and Bill.


End file.
